“Every time he would ask me, ‘When are you gonna go officer? When are you gonna go officer?’ And I kept saying, ‘You know, I'm working on my clinical hours, Grandpa. I'm working on it’.”
Courtney Mulhern, a HUD-VASH social worker with the Minneapolis VA, served one weekend a month and a few weeks a year as a civil affairs non-commissioned officer in the Army Reserves.
That was until this month, when she was promoted from staff sergeant to first lieutenant, accepting a direct commission into the Army Medical Department.
“It's kind of a natural time in my career to make the jump,” said Mulhern. “I was a social worker on the civilian side and it was kind of always my long-term goal was to direct commission as a social worker.”
Another natural choice for Mulhern was asking her grandfather, who once went by Staff Sgt. Loren Mollet, to be her first salute. The first salute is a military tradition to honor the enlisted service member who has had the most impact on you. Mollet is a Hastings resident and member of the Hastings American Legion.
“I was thrilled,” said Mollet when asked what he thought of the opportunity. “I was the one who talked her into going into the service anyway.”
“We have just always stayed in touch about service anytime we would hang out, we're always talking about where I'm at in my career and he just always really encouraged me to go officer,” said Mulhern. “Every time he would ask me, ‘When are you gonna go officer? When are you gonna go officer?’ And I kept saying, ‘you know, I'm working on my clinical hours, Grandpa. I'm working on it’.”
Mollet encouraged his granddaughter, because he enjoyed his years in the Air Force. He enlisted in 1951 to avoid being drafted. As luck would have it, he loved his job as a senior cryptologist. He coded and decoded classified messages from a base in Africa during the Korean War era. He might have done another enlistment, but he was already married, with a baby at home, and didn’t want to be separated from his wife Valerie. The Mollets have been married 72 years now.
After passing her licensed clinical social worker exam last fall, Mulhern learned just before Christmas that she’d been selected for a direct commission. “I wrapped a little present and told him it's finally happening,” she said.
Mulhern’s first salute is also a present for her grandfather. Not only did she slip him a silver dollar, a tradition for a newly commissioned officers to present to the first enlisted Soldier who salutes them, her commissioning ceremony was held on his 94th birthday.